SNCF Reseau has entered into a multi-award innovation partnership (made up of three groups) for the research, development and deployment of next-generation computer signalling installations. Called Argos, this program should allow the renewal of switch stations that have become obsolete. In a Hitachi Rail STS consortium, Systra and Dorsalys will intervene nationally to replace the existing systems with Computer Switching Stations (PAI).

Initiated in 2017 by SNCF Reseau, the Argos project entered the development phase in 2020. Its objective: to modernize and digitize the current switch stations, which use electromechanical, electrical and even mechanical technologies, replacing them with ARGOS systems allowing trains to run safely in a given area. 'Our ambition is to deploy a system that is efficient, resilient, easy to maintain and allows us to limit the consequences on operations during work and testing,' says Anne-Sophie Naboulet-Larcher, head of technology strategy and project management at SNCF Reseau.

To achieve this, the various industrial partners will replace 90% of the old interfaces in NS1 (relay technology) by computer object controllers. In the same way, the switch stations will be gradually replaced by centres located in the countryside, as close as possible to the objects. Less expensive and more quickly implemented, the new facilities will also be more efficient and easy to maintain.

For the time being, our employees are engaged with Hitachi Rail STS (agent of the group) on three projects in the preparatory phase: the head of regeneration of the Reding-Saverne line (between Moselle and Bas-Rhin), the equipment of the Operational Center for Traffic Management (COGC) in Bordeaux and the Railway Facilities North of Toulouse (AFNT) which will make it possible to streamline traffic on a section close to saturation between Saint-Jory and Toulouse-Matabiau. By 2024, the consortium must finalize the commissioning of the lead before continuing on other national projects, by installing new shelters or equipment centres along the tracks and implementing railway signalling equipment (signals, needles, track circuits, detectors, beacons, etc.).

After 3 years of development (2020-2023), the group of industrialists of the Argos project, of which Dorsalys is a stakeholder, will thus engage in a 15-year deployment phase, which should last until 2038.

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